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12/30/15

2015 End of the Year Book Survey

Although I've been in a major bookish/blogging/reading slump for the last few weeks, the light at the end of the tunnel is Jaime's end of the year book survey. Reviewing and reflecting on the past year of reading and blogging is always one of my favourite parts of the year, and I'm hoping that it'll also give me a clean slate feeling so that I can start 2016 with renewed enthusiasm for reading and blogging!

Number of Books You Read: 53

Number of Books You Re-Read: 1

Genre You Read The Most From: Probably contemporary

1. Best Book You Read in 2015?

I think I'll give this award to The Start of Me & You by Emery Lord. Although I really enjoyed Open Road Summer when I read it last year, it didn't blow me away like it did for everyone else. But I couldn't get enough of The Start of Me & You, and was absolutely enthralled by the friendship in this story.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

My co-worker raved about Kirsten Ashley's Rock Chick and convinced me to read it. I didn't expect to love it, but it definitely confirmed for me that I'm not much of a romance novel reader.

3. Most Surprising (in a good or bad way!) Book of 2015?

My husband bought me The Rosie Project for Christmas last year, and I expected to like it, but didn't expect to laugh out loud while reading it!

4. Book You "Pushed" the Most People to Read (and they did) in 2015?

I recommended Tell the Wolves I'm Home to my book club, and everyone loved it! My next book choice is Before I Fall, and I have my fingers crossed that they'll love that one too.

5. Best Series you Started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

I binged the entire Grisha trilogy in 2015, and loved it so, so much. I'll give best sequel to Queen of Shadows and I suppose City of Heavenly Fire can take the best series ender title, since it was one of few series that I actually finished this year. It was a decent series ender, but the series definitely went on too long in my opinion.

6. Favorite New Author You Discovered in 2015?

Taylor Jenkins Reid -- I read, and loved, both Forever, Interrupted and After I Do.

7. Best Book From a Genre You Don't Typically Read/Was Out of Your Comfort Zone?

I started Jennifer L. Armentrout's Luxe series this year, and I don't usually gravitate towards books about aliens! Although it's super cheesy, it's still fun.

8. Most Action-Packed, Thrilling, Unputdownable Book in 2015?My Secret Santa got me Lucy Christopher's Stolen last year, which I read right away. It was so unusual in its narrative style, not to mention addicting since I wanted to find out what happened.

9. Book You Read in 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

I'm not a huge re-reader, and haven't planned any re-reads just yet. There are a few series starters that I may re-read just to refresh my memory, but they weren't read in 2015.

10. Favorite Cover of a Book You Read in 2015?

This book is beautiful -- just beautiful!

11. Most Memorable Character in 2015?

Although I can't remember the characters names, I think I'll go with the characters in Colleen Hoover's Ugly Love.

12. Most Beautifully Written Book Read in 2015?

Black Iris -- the writing is equal to the beautiful cover pictured above.

13. Most Thought-Provoking / Life-Changing Book of 2015?

My book club read I Am Malala and, although I wouldn't say it was life-changing, it definitely was a thought-provoking read.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read?

Tell the Wolves I'm Home -- so many bloggers that I trust LOVE this book, and I'd had it sitting on my shelves for years! It totally lived up to the hype.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015?When Judith @ Paperiot posted this quote on Instagram, I instantly added the book to my TBR and downloaded it later that afternoon. A quote has never affected me this way before...Girls love each other like animals. There is something ferocious and unself-conscious about it. We don't guard ourselves like we do with boys. No one trains us to shield our hearts from each other. With girls, it's total vulnerability from the beginning. Our skin is bare and soft. We love with claws and teeth and the blood is just proof of how much. It's feral.

And it's relentless.~ Black Iris by Leah Raeder

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015?

How I did this: Went to my read books on Goodreads and sorted by page number and just looked for what I knew I read this year that was the shortest and longest.

Longest -- A Storm of Swords (1,177 pages!)

Shortest -- The Demon in the Wood (30 pages)

17. Book that shocked you the most?

I'm honestly not sure that I was actually shocked by any of the books that I read this year, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first three books in Abbi Glines' Rosemary Beach series. After I finished reading the first one, I immediately downloaded the second because I wanted more of the story, and I haven't had a contemporary book affect me that way in a long time.

20. Favorite book you read in 2015 from an author you’ve read previously?

Most of Colleen Hoover's books are a bit hit and miss for me. I liked Hopeless, but was definitely irritated with the characters during parts of the story, and didn't like the Slammed series at all. But I LOVED Ugly Love. I guess this was a shocking read too?

21. Best book you read in 2015 that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else?

I didn't read a lot of debuts this year, but I'll go with Tell the Wolves I'm Home because, as far as I know, it's her only novel.

24. Best worldbuilding / most vivid setting you read this year?Same answer as last year -- the Throne of Glass series!

25. Book that put a smile on your face / was the most FUN to read?

The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect -- laughed out loud during both books, which I rarely ever do!

26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2015?

I SOBBED during Ugly Love -- full on messy crying.

27. Hidden gem of the year?Brie @ Slice of Brie raved about The War That Saved My Life, which is a middle grade novel. I don't read much middle grade these days, and don't see many middle grade books getting much bookish buzz, but this was definitely a solidly good read!

28. Book that crushed your soul?Ugly Love again?

29. Most unique book you read in 2015?Definitely Black Iris. It was so beautifully written, but with an unreliable narrator and I'm still thinking about it months later.

30. Book that made you the most mad (doesn't necessarily mean you didn't like it)?

Hmm, I'm not sure that I actually had a book instill rage in me this year.

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?

Astronomical Books. Helia's blog (and her Instagram too!) is beautiful and her writing is so gorgeous. Many of her posts have really made me think.

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015?

I didn't write many reviews this year, but I was pretty happy with 99 Days.

3. Best discussion you had on your blog?Probably my post On Being You, where I wrote about taking my blog in a slightly different direction.

4. Most thought-provoking review or discussion you read on somebody else’s blog?When I first stumbled across Helia's blog, I went back and read all of her posts from the beginning and absolutely LOVED Is My Writing Meaningless? I immediately started a response post of my own which, sadly hasn't been finalized yet, but hopefully will be in the new year.

6. Best moment of book blogging/your book life in 2015?Honestly, it's been a bit of a low blogging/reading year for me. I've definitely enjoyed the challenges that I participated in, and even getting the Lose Time RRReading Readathon set up, even if the readathon itself was a bit of a flop. I'm hoping to get my blogging mojo back in 2016!

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?My haul posts are usually the most popular, but this year it's the top ten books that I had recently added to my TBR! Most of the time, I forget to link up my TTT posts, so this must have been one week that I actually remembered -- ha ha!

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?I decided to start a new thing and wrote about my yoga journey, which didn't get any love at all. Brie left me the sweetest comment on my follow-up post about giving up on perfection, which has inspired me to keep going. I think I also need to network a bit with yoga bloggers, since my blog is going in a bit of a different direction now?

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?This was the year that I discovered Book Outlet -- and my shelves exploded. I'm going to try to take a little break from this site next year, as I definitely need to focus on the books that I already own!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

I participated in three challenges this year, but didn't do very well at any of them. I didn't set myself a goal for the Flight Into Fantasy challenge, and I did read some fantasy books this year, so I'll count that as complete. The other two challenges were the Prequel & Sequel Challenge, where I went crazy on series at the beginning of the year and then slacked, and the TBR Pile Challenge, but I kept focusing on the books that I bought this year, which means I didn't read many off my shelves. Oh, and I did reach my Goodreads goal, so that's good!

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016?I'm still trying to clear up my last outstanding review copies, so hopefully I'll be getting to Julianna Baggott's Burn really, really soon. I would also like to read Winter and Six of Crows soon!

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)?A Court of Mist and Fury for SURE and the yet-to-have-a-title fifth installment of the Throne of Glass series.

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?I haven't had my eye on any debut books for next year, but I'm excited to see what's on everyone else's horizons for next year!

4. Series Ending You Are Most Anticipating in 2016?I don't think I have any current series that are wrapping up next year -- shocking, I know!

5. One Thing You Hope to Accomplish or Do in Your Reading/Blogging in 2016?Keep having fun, whether it's posting what I want or reading what I want -- 2016 will be fun and stress-free! And definitely hoping to get out of this icky reading/blogging slump that has been a constant presence in my life for the past couple of months =(
If you filled out this survey, please leave me a link to your post and I'll stop by! Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

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comments:

I binged on the Grisha trilogy too this year, Shadow and Bone was a reread but I am so pleased I read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising back to back because they were amazing!! I finally read Clockwork Princess so I could read City of Heavenly Fire, but I started it and haven't been able to get into it properly, which makes me sad. Are you planning on reading Lady Midnight? I'm in two minds as to whether I should even bother. :/ Happy new year!! <3

Happy New Year to you too! I would like to try Lady Midnight, but I have to finish the Infernal Devices first. I learned, too late, that her books were supposed to be read in publication order, so I think I've spoiled Clockwork Princess a bit, but oh well. If it helps, I alternated listening to CoHF on audio and reading the print version -- it made that chunky read go MUCH faster!